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U.S. Computer Security Advisor Encourages Hackers

Posted by timothy on from the grain-of-salt-to-choke-a-volcano dept.

DarklordSatin writes: "According to this Associated Press article, which I was pointed to by the nice guys over at Ars Technica, Richard Clarke, Dubya's Computer Security Advisor, wants to encourage hackers to find security holes in software. Although he feels that the system only works when the hackers show 'good faith' and disclose the holes to the company before the public, he wants to start offering more legal protection to hackers and that is a very good step in the right direction." As the folks at Ars point out, though, "Naturally, Mr. Clark was using the original, more generalized, definition of "hacker", but I guess saying 'Bush Adviser Encourages Discovery of Software Bugs' just didn't have enough zing."

1 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. break programs? by stray · · Score: 5, Funny
    From the article: A presidential advisor encouraged the nation's top computer security professionals and hackers Wednesday to try to break computer programs, but said they might need protection from the legal wrath of software makers.

    ... and there I was, thinking that most computer programs were broken to begin with. How about encouraging computer professionals to *fix* programs?